


familiar tunes

by jayhood



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: (Batman and Robin volume 2 issue 20), Batman and Red Hood, Bruce Wayne A++ parenting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:54:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23335714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayhood/pseuds/jayhood
Summary: Sir, that's my emotional support punching bag.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 14
Kudos: 119





	familiar tunes

Jason wants to laugh.

No, not really, he wants to punch that son of the bitch, and he’s certain he would have if he didn’t pack a pack of cigarettes with him when they figured out they will be going to Ethiopia. Well, he figured out; it was Bruce’s plan all along, right?

So he concentrates on getting it out, getting the lighter out, and all the while making sure his hands don’t shake. He doesn’t know why he bothers, really. His whole upper body shakes, slightly. But the effort is enough to redirect a little of the energy raging through his body.

“Your son, huh?” he repeats after Bruce, slowly.

He wants to ask, and what about me? And maybe, what about him getting the gift of not knowing how Joker tainted his whole life, how Bruce tainted it… Or, what about him being Bruce’s son, once upon a time as well?

But. Was he? It’s pathetic, really, to cling to that childish delusion even now – especially now. You would think he knows better.

But he is pathetic.

“You just want your son back,” he says, gulping down the smoke. He sees, out of the corner of his eye, how Bruce becomes more agitated. How one wrong word, and it would be Batman punching him in the face as Jason still wants to do.

“You want to watch him grow up. Make friends. Graduate. Attend college. Get a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Or whatever. Doesn’t matter, as long as he’s happy. Right?” he asks. “It’s what parents wish for their children, or should, anyway. For them to be happy. It’s not like I don’t understand.”

Shit. The cigarette is burning too quickly or something. Now he doesn’t have anything to do with his hands, so he hides them in his pants pockets. There are no guns there, and it would be difficult to draw quick enough anyway. Just a small knife. Sharp enough, though. Pain grounds his breathing more than smoke did.

He turns to Bruce.

“The shittiest part of this is, you know what, B?” he asks and shakes his head. Of course, he wouldn’t. “If you only wanted me to recall everything that went down, here, then. We didn’t need to make a field trip. You should have just waited for me to go asleep.”

His eyes are burning, damn it. But what’s he said is true, and isn’t it the kicker.

He laughs, despite himself. That’s the last straw that broke Bruce’s back, apparently, as he swings at him. Punch connects. Jason falls down. He doesn’t bother taking his hands out of pocket. He makes an effort to keep his eyes closed, though.

“Every night, it’s the same, you know? Him, me. That warehouse. Want to hear a joke, Bruce? Robin walks into the crowbar.”

Bruce punches him again. Shit, the nose is probably broken.

“Yeah, I didn’t find it funny either,” he wants to say, but Bruce doesn’t really give him an opportunity to make any noises except grunts of pain.

After a while, Jason finds it in himself, though, to shoot a quick: “What, are you not going to ask me left or right? Like, what hurts more?”

Bruce stops. Sits on the sand beside him. Is he, what, dry-sobs? Has a panic attack? The sounds he makes are ugly. But even Jason's patheticness has limits. He’s past the point of caring.

“There’s nothing useful for you, anyway, in those memories,” he coughs up. “Nothing he did to me before I died, I’m pretty sure, was related to how I came back. Anyway, given how it all turned out for me, would you really want him back? Like this?”

“He wouldn’t be  _ like this _ ,” Bruce grunts.

Damn. Somehow, it’s the most hurtful thing Jason experienced all night.

Jason feels numb and cold, which, given that they’re in the middle of the desert, is not a good sign.

He drags himself upright.

He drags himself to the car.

He leaves.

Bruce stays.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm redjaybathood on tumblr, if you want to say hi


End file.
